Renesa | As We Are 2018-2019

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The annual institute magazine ‘As We Are’ provides the perfect blend for showcasing the dizzying heights scaled by the students of SVNIT, as well as for bidding the final year students of SVNIT, a goodbye, they would always love to remember.

SVNIT has always encouraged its students to do well in academics as well as in sports and cultural activities and the latter too have made the institute feel proud of them on more than one occasions. Innumerable opportunities are provided for students to excel in academic as well as other extra-curricular arenas. Ours being an institute of national importance, it is the fundamental duty of the students to evolve into responsible citizens and live up to the expectations of the country and to work for the service of humanity as well. I am sure, our students are committed to the same.

‘As We Are’ is not just a magazine but a phenomenon, which not only highlights the achievements of the fellow students of our institute but also gives the young writers, poets and artists to showcase their talent. It is a souvenir to all the students who will be leaving the college to start a new phase in their life.

Wishing the final year students all the very best in life ahead to come. May you achieve success in all your future endeavours.

Prof. S R Gandhi Director SVNIT

An academic institution is enriched by the contribution of students. The annual yearbook of the Institute, As We Are, is therefore a platform for demonstration of the growth of the institute through the achievements of our students. For the batch of 2019, I would insist them to “be innovative in their approach to life and be solution oriented”. This is required to achieve ecologically and socially balanced professional growth. There are several social issues around you which need Engineering solutions. Please identify them and use your technological expertise to resolve them. My best wishes to the students of batch 2019 for a purposeful and prosperous future.

Dr. Jyotirmay Banerjee Dean (Academic)

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Welfare of the students in the campus is of utmost importance. The Office of the Dean Student Welfare acts as a bridge between the students and the authorities with a prime objective to bring the overall development amongst the students and create conducive environment in the campus. I have had the pleasure in knowing students active participation in various student chapters under student council and won several prizes in various technical & sports activities. It gives me an immense pleasure to observe in the magazine a brief report of various student chapters and supplement the achievements of the students of our institute. I feel proud and privileged of the Student Council of SVNIT and the core committee of SPARSH 2019 for suspending all the four cultural nights, in order to pay homage to the martyred soldiers in the recent attack in Pulwama on 14th Feb.,19. A tribute evening on the name of “Veero Ko Naman” was organized to pay tribute to the brave hearts on a large scale and to bow each and every CRPF jawan who has sacrificed his life in Pulwama attack. Student Council of SVNIT donated Rs.20 lac to the Bharat Ke Veer corpus for the CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama terror attack. On behalf of SVNIT, Speaker, Cultural Affair Secretary, Co-cultural Affair Secretary of student council & Dean(SW) were felicitated by honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri. Vijay Rupani and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar at the event “Ek Shaam Shahido Ke Naam, Bharat Ke Veer Jawan” organized on March 1, 2019 at Vanita Vishram Ground, Surat. It was a proud moment to all of us and I sincerely acknowledge and appreciate the generous support given by all the students of SVNIT which will be remembered for ever. A new “Induction Programme” for new entrants has been introduced from the academic year 2019 – 20 to help students to get its complete benefits and to have a smooth transition and holistic development.

I congratulate all the students and wish all the very best for their life ahead………

Prof.V.H.Pradhan Dean(Student Welfare) We are pleased to share student’s wonderful carving ‘As We Are’ - a reflection of their journey of life on campus, thoughts, imagination, emotions, expectations and much more. This is a democratic dais of the students, made available by the institute. Traditionally, it is dedicated to final year students as memorial document. We acknowledge the efforts and spirit of our committee. It gives cheerful and delightful feel to everyone who is going through these colourful pages of their golden period of life on campus. We wish all our students a grand success in their future endeavour.

Dr. V. L. Manekar Faculty Advisor- Renesa Publications

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EDITORIAL

“And so their memories took on potential, which is of course how our greatest nostalgias are born.”

- Mohsin Hamid, Exit West From student chapters to dingy laboratories, college has provided seemingly endless encounters with a seemingly endless roster of people. While each acquaintance is distinct in its own way, by the time final year rolls around, one begins to recognise those special bonds - the select few who made the four years feel uniquely memorable, who made enduring an otherwise-dreadful place seem surprisingly bearable. So that as we march onward, after college, these are the people we remember, the moments that truly live on in our minds.

As We Are is our humble attempt at a yearbook, and through it we have hoped to create an encapsulation of your time in college. A memento for a journey whose laughs (and scars) may last you for a lifetime. We picture you both joyful and blue as you flip through these pages, marking the photographs and words that hopefully make you remember your unique time in this place. The issue is also packed with a range of articles on topics as diverse as the art of graffiti to the troubles of fast fashion.

We wish to thank the exceptional team of Renesa for managing to bring yet another issue into existence. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, despite the melodrama, we endured, as we’ve always done. We only hope that the readers feel the same joy reading it that we felt creating it.

Rhishabh Goswami, Chief Editor Mrityunjay Mohan Borah, Chief Editor

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CONTENTS FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT

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MARS, WE’RE COMING

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THE GENIUS FETISH

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UNDER THE PRICE TAG

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JOAN DIDION IS NOT AMUSED

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DEPARTMENTAL PHOTOS

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MO SALAH, MARVEL AND MINORITIES

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LA FAMILIA

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THE END OF THE WORLD

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THE STUDENT CHAPTERS 6

ACM

ACM, which stands for Association for Computing Machinery is one of the most known student chapters of our college.

From conducting technical competitions like Epiphany, Summer Challenge, and Inception to hosting workshops, ACM has also kept Ask Me Anything talks to help and guide juniors in every possible way and we have evolved drastically over the years.

ACM team has always tried to give their 100% to share the knowledge and every possible skill in every manner possible be it personal or public with the motto of improving college’s reputation nationally and improving the Coding Culture and other activities tremendously.

The core team consists of 18 3rd yearites and a large number of second yearites as executive members everyone making effort to share knowledge.

The core team includes various posts like Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Editor, Designer, Core members, etc.

With new challenges every year, the team grows in itself and is bound to come up with unique and exciting events.

Some of the exciting events organized like INCEPTION, an intra college event for every year whereas EPIPHANY it is an event which is organized nationally every college could be a part of it, by this event our college students can get to know and realise where do they stand in this rat race of coding and gets the chance to improve exponentially.

Another exciting event, which is ASK ME ANYTHING, was a talk given by final year and pre-final year students to respective juniors, which was aiming to satisfy all the queries and doubt of junior plus sharing personal experiences of interviews, which tremendously helped them.

There is an annual event conducted every year during the summer break,

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which is called the ACM SUMMER CHALLENGE. Students are provided with tutorial beforehand and solve coding questions topicwise, these questions are set by the problem setters of ACM. It lasts for a period of approximately 1.5 months aiming to develop the keen interest towards coding.

All in all, the unity and constant determination of ACM drives the team to overcome challenges and pursue success !!

ChES

The Chemical Engineering Society was instituted on 16th January 2014 and Dr. Meghal Desai is the current faculty advisor of the student chapter. Affiliated to the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), ChES aims to spread knowledge and experience to the future chemical engineers about chemical engineering education and application. Over the past years, the chemical engineering society conducted events demonstrating innovation from fun activities. Some of the major events conducted by the Society in 2018-2019:

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DWSIM WORKSHOPS: The role of a Chemical Engineer is to develop, construct, control, optimize and manage any process involving physical and/or chemical change and make these process profitable while considering the environmental norms.

To understand the behaviour of these changes, process stimulation is done and for that we use process stimulator. To understand the working and the function of the DWSIM, a workshop was given by Mr. Mehul Sutariya (B.Tech 3rd year) and Miss Jhanvi Rana (B.Tech 4th year) and volunteered by Mr Jay Maradiya and Mr Sohail Boloch, who were kind enough to spare their time.

The event was attended by many students of the chemical engineering department.

The event also symbolised a great example of sharing your knowledge and

precious time among juniors and batch mates. The event first started by the introduction of DWISM carried by explaining every feature of the stimulator and later everyone was given a problem to solve on the stimulator software.

The students were free to ask any queries. Total 3 such workshops were conducted and it received a great response from the students.

CHRD CHRD (Center for Human Resource Development) offers students a number of clubs to kill free time after college hours in a creative, productive and entertaining way. CHRD consists of 5 clubs, which are the following.Akriti: Akriti is a heaven for those with artistic traits. Members of this club volunteer to design and decorate posters and banners for events throughout the year. During Sparsh, members of Akriti paint the canteen wall with the letters SPARSH in an extravagant font. More than two days are spent in painting it and it is usually one of the most spectacular pieces of art in the campus. Regular workshops are held in which these various types of art and crafts are taught to the students in order to give them the tools to express using colour and canvas.

Convex: Convex is filled to the brim with talented photographers that use their skill, patience and creativity to depict their own perception of the world in an eye catching manner. Regular photo walks encourage students to take advantage of the lush green campus thriving with a diverse variety of flora and fauna to capture the beauty of nature and bring out the hidden photographer in them. Convex is also responsible for covering each and every event that might happen around the college.

Kirdaar: Kirdaar is the place to go for those who have a bit of theatrical side.

Actors, directors and script writers come together to create a wide range of plays for the various events held by the club. Kirdaar conducts several events across the year such as Avhaan, Rangmanch, Nukkad Natak and Spandan.

Spandan is the theatrical night of SVNIT. It is an evening dedicated to celebrating the spirit of theatre. Actors, writers, directors from all years put together their best work for making this evening memorable.

Malang: Malang is the perfect place for those who live to move in sync with the beat. Members can perform a wide range of dance forms including hip hop, freestyle, salsa, break, Indian classical, Garba, street, urban, Bollywood, etc. Regular workshops are held so that members and non members can

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learn the basics of these forms. Members may also compete in the dancing night of Sparsh. Malang has an annual dance event named Synchronize.

Here, the active dancers get a platform to show their skills to the audience of the college.

Raag: Raag is a union of people passionate about creating soulful music, either vocally or with the help of instruments. Often, members form bands and these bands perform during events in college like Shamiyana, the bonfire night, and the singing night in Sparsh. Other events include Unplugged, Symphony and Music Trail where music aficionados jam and sing along with their favourite tunes. Symphony is the yearly conducted music night of SVNIT. These clubs are officially funded by the institute and run by the students.

Meetings are held as often as once a week to exchange ideas. These clubs help students remain in touch with their artistic and creative side. They serve the purpose of a break from the drudgery of academics and help make the environment of the college engaging. Most of the club meetings are held in the lush green grass lawns of the campus where students practice in the open air with greenery all around them.

EES

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The Electrical Engineering Society, EES, is a student chapter of like minded people who believe there is much more to college then just academics.

EES is a body, solely working towards the development of co-curricular skills among the technical enthusiasts, providing ample opportunities for everyone to transform one's personality.

Officially established in 2014, EES is the first departmental student chapter of SVNIT functioning under the guidance of Dr. M. A. Mulla and Hiren G. Patel.

Back then, the motive behind forming this body was to promote inquisitiveness among the students and enhance their technical skills as well as their creativity. This was thus a contribution in improvement of human resource in graduating engineering.

The first event, organised by EES, is the general orientation of the first year crowd. This is followed by the tech event DEXTRIX. DEXTRIX is basically one on one interaction session of seniors and juniors where in the juniors gain technical knowledge and observe demonstrations of several electrical machinery and components.

EES also organises a Mega Quiz popular in the crowd as 'Quizyappa'. Almost 100+ teams participate in this quiz with prizes being worth Rs.5000.

Apart from all these, the biggest attraction is yearly EES fest 'Aatish' , conducted for 2 days ,hosts several technical, non-technical and creative events.

IETE STUDENTS FORUM IETE, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineeers is a nationally recognized society. ISF is a student wing of Institution of electronics and telecommunication Engineers (IETE), established in 550+ colleges.

We at IETE at organize technical seminars, workshops, competitions, quizzes and lectures, offer career and placement guidance. We provide a platform for the exchange of technical ideas.

IETE, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineeers is a nationally recognized society. ISF is a student wing of Institution of electronics and telecommunication Engineers (IETE), established in 550+ colleges.

We at IETE at organize technical seminars, workshops, competitions, quizzes and lectures, offer career and placement guidance. We provide a platform for the exchange of technical ideas.

The fest of Electronics department Hertz and SMPC are organized by IETE as well.

Currently Dr. Rasika Dhavse and Dr. Shilpi Gupta from Electronics Engineering department are the faculty advisors.

The members of ISF include students from all circuit branches of our college.

We organise other co-curricular activities like debates, project competitions, robotics competitions, etc.

Some successful workshops conducted by ISF are Handwritten Number Detection Using ML, Antenna Designing, Advanced Oscilloscopes Workshop, Mobile to bot control robot, IoT etc. These workshops are conducted in association with prestigious organisations like ISRO, IEEE and companies like Tektronix, Optimised solutions, Technocrats,etc.

There were two major fests and throughout the year workshop, quizzes were held from time to time. An interactive session with seniors which mentored the students as to how to achieve their goals in their field whether it be in core electronics, coding or management was also conducted. Some of the major events conducted by ISF in academic year 2018-19 were Sandeep Memorial Project Competition (SMPC) This event is conducted every year in the memory of Late Sandeep Kumar Saini who was a student of electronics department SVNIT. It is an initiative of IETE Student Forum to enhance the skill and excellence of students in

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electronics and personality development through various competitions.

The events were Circuitrix, Robomania, Open Project Competitio, BreakOver..

Hertz 4.0 It was a fourth edition of annual departmental fest organised by ISF students. It included a Machine Learning Workshop, Treasure Hunt Competitive Coding, Robotics and Embedded Electronics related events, F.R.I.E.N.D.S Quiz, GD and various informals

SAE

SAE, being one of the most prestigious student chapters, provides an enriching platform for the students to enhance and scrutinise their skills and calibre as an automobile enthusiast. Pragmatic approach towards learning has always been the crux of this chapter. Our past accolades GARUNA (2005), ASHWAMEDH (2007), PUSHPAK (2006), YUYUTSU (2009), ANSHUMAT (2009) and PHOENIX (2011, 12, 14, 15, 16) invariably adds a feather in the cap of our glory.

The statistics regarding our team’s performance as Team PHOENIX Racing over last few years are mentioned here: PHOENIX 2011; 1st in presentation, 2nd in Cost report and 4th in overall performance PHOENIX 2012; 1st in Cost report, 3rd in acceleration test, 4th in skid pad and 5th in overall performance PHOENIX 2014; 2nd in preliminary design evaluation, 3rd in overall ranking PHOENIX 2015; 13th in overall ranking PHOENIX 2016; 3rd in Gujarat

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E-Go Kart Design Challenge, Electric Vehicle; Overall Champions With a clear vision in our mind and a specific target, we are currently toiling towards establishing our name in the field of electric Go-Kart. Revamped designing skills, augmented practical knowledge and hands on learning experience are a result of our participation in these events. Electric Go kart is presently the prime focus of the club and hence, stupendous achievements in this field are indubitably in the offing. This club has also arranged various seminars based on the basic industrial training which includes a lecture on vehicle dynamics (NBT-2017) and regarding the use of SOLIDWORKS design software (Sopan Institute).

Moreover this group also provides a new experience for the students to face an entirely new competitive environment which basically is the crux of learning engineering.

Electric Go Kart Challenge 6TH Edition The Team took a stern decision to change their playground at the time, to enter the world’s next upcoming motorsport arena the Electric Concept. The electric/electronic works of the kart were comprehensively done by Gaurav Kajadaria, Chahbaz Aman and Chhavi Sharma to achieve a mind blowing performance along with pristine efficiency. The mechanical construct and analysis of the vehicle to withstand all sorts of challenges were carried out by 24 talented students along with the sophomores of the club led by the team captain Urvil Siddhapura and the Chairperson Arman Mansuri.

Phoenix racing turned out to be overall champions securing top positions in various categories such as Best design, best innovation, Best Endurance, Best Skid pad, Best Autocross, Best Driver. The major highlight of the team was their ability to assemble and disassemble the vehicle under a nerve racking 6 minutes. The track marshal of the competition unofficially conveyed to the team captain that their vehicle was the fastest ever electric go kart to run on the Buddha international circuit, greater Noida.

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DRISHTI

Drishti is a technical hobby club of SVNIT, founded by an alumnus in the year 2002. Since then, it has been working on all technical activities carried out in the college and is managed by Faculty Advisor Dr. R.P. Gohil and Dr. Praful Timbadiya.

Drishti, through its legacy of innovative and tech-centred projects, has always motivated young minds in the college to take up projects, which help them to experience the practical side of engineering. It boasts of providing them a platform where they can collaborate, carry out technical activities and see their most creative and innovative ideas, and thus, their dreams materialize.

Drishti welcomes all those with great ideas towards developing projects that can lead to social welfare. Here, we put our best to learn from our own mistakes and try to construct better technologies for the society.

Apart from technical activities, in Drishti, students learn teamwork and time-management. They learn how to work under pressure.

Drishti promotes student participation in nationally recognized technical fests like Techfest-IITB and Kshitij-IIT Kharagpur. It has also been representing SVNIT at the Asia-Pacific International Robotics competition, ROBOCON for the last 7 years. Last year Team Drishti was a part of Indian Rover Challenge, which is one of the competitions held by International Rover Challenge series.

It also took part in the Boeing Aeromodelling contest at IITB in 2018.

Throughout the year, Drishti conducts various competitions and workshops, to keep the students active. We begin with an orientation for new students every year, where weexhibit our previous years' projects and inform them about the working environment of Drishti.

Makerspace: Makerspace is an event specially conducted to introduce the buzz about Robotics among the new students. The students are divided into groups and

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assigned different problem statements with a mentor. The team has to work together to complete the project within the given deadline.

GrandRobo Prix &Workshops: Grand Robo Prix is the mega event conducted by Drishti. It is a two-day event, which includes various workshops and competitions. This event aims at making students capable of constructing a robot model.

Insight: Insight is the yearly exhibition of all the robot projects that the Drishti makes.

Bridge-It Battleship: This was an on the spot shipbuilding competition where we provided materials to students to create a battleship.

Participation: ROBOCON and Indian Rover Challenge are the two internationally recognized competitions, where we gave our best.

Both the competitions included solving a problem statement and working accordingly.

LAC

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LAC is the home to bibliophile, movie buffs, culture and art enthusiasts, fact fanatics, quiz masters, debaters and GD experts of our college. It appreciates the nerd in you. From embracing your love for the fantasy world of Harry Potter to providing a platform to listen to your conspiracy theories, LAC never disappoints its members and undoubtly last session was an engaging one.

LAC kicked off the year with its group discussion sessions followed by interviews for new recruits in October. While time was a constraint in the autumn semester, the spring semester witnessed a number of events.

LAC meetings offers a lot for juniors to learn. Quick workshops on GDs and debates; Suche sessions, How it should have ended, Tape a tale, etc. were conducted throughout the year to imbibe the culture of LAC in new recruits and seniors alike.

Apart from intra LAC events, the open to all events started with ‘Open Debate Competition’ conducted in January which saw some of the most heated debates on some of the most heated topics. Next to debate, General Quiz witnessed a housefull Production Seminar hall. On the eve of World Poetry Day,‘Wordsworth’-an open mic poetry event was conducted.

In the last week of March, LAC conducted its signature event, The Quiz Week in the Old CRC complex. For each and every day of the week, a quiz was prepared and hosted by their own Quizmasters. Covering the genres of Sports, MELA, Anime&Cartoons, Movies & TV Series and General Knowledge, the quiz week witnessed a huge turnout of participants everyday, revealing a number of exciting facts, stages and winners. It was conducted by the final year members of LAC. Quiz week like its previous versions, lived upto its streak of being the most successful event by LAC.

SCOSH SCOSH is an interactive stage to explore one’s creativity towards basic sciences and humanities. SCOSH came into existence in the year 2008, as a dormant chapter of NIT Surat, initializing with small yet significant events in its first year, such as a Prakriti, Science Hunt, Khagol-Shastra, Fiction writing competition etc. The motto of SCOSH, a budding chapter of NIT Surat, formed by the ignited minds of the students of the five-years Integrated M.Sc. programme is to popularize science and bring about a scientific temperament amongst the youth and hence to enable the realization of the relevance of humanities amongst them. Today SCOSH is one of the most dynamic student chapters of the institute. SCOSH regularly keeps organizing workshops, seminars and movie screenings.

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SPICMACAY SPICMACAY (The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is a voluntary youth movement which promotes Indian cultural heritage by promoting Indian classical music, classical dance, folk music, yoga, meditation, crafts and other aspects of Indian culture. Established by Dr. Kiran Seth in 1977 at IIT Delhi, today it has over 300 chapters all around the world.

SPICMACAY celebrates the purpose of Nishkaam Seva, the spirit of volunteerism – of giving selflessly without expectation, a value that is intrinsic to our culture and important to nurture in today's world. Its core purpose is to have every child experience the inspiration and mysticism in Indian and World Heritage. SPICMACAY SVNIT Chapter has successfully arranged many events like Virasat, Swaranjali, Sarang etc. in the college and invited National award winning artists. From dances like Kathak and Bharatnatyam to crafts like Warli painting to musical instruments like Sarangi, Santoor, Violin etc., the volunteers of SPICMACAY SVNIT have been torchbearers of this movement.

After all, ‘Origin is where one’s roots are’ and one must never forget that.

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FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT

We humans are a lovely bunch. Despite the Darwin-explained ‘superior’ intellect, what really sets mankind apart from other species is not its love for the unknown, but its love to argue. Think about it. Nothing beats the thrill of a good argument, especially one where you know you’re right.

But how many times have you been in an argument which you know you can’t win? The root cause of such table-flipping standoffs is the fact that human nature, and/or stupidity, demands that we remain stoic in certain opinions regarding issues that would be better resolved by healthy arguments – issues of religion, politics, and philosophy. Since we are ridiculously hostile towards change, we are easily threatened by ideas that challenge what we believe and choose to ignore such arguments, however well-supported they are.

The question thus arises – how do you present an argument in a way that compels your audience, and in particular, your adversaries, to listen? The problem with the way we argue is that we generally view arguments as strictly black-and-white. There are always winners or losers, right or wrong, Marvel or DC, milk first or cereal first. Especially in controversial matters where conflict is inevitable, it might prove useful to remember that those murky grey areas can provide the perfect opportunity for a truce. Such an argument, which explores both sides to find common ground, rather than claim an absolute truth, is called a Rogerian Argument and was first suggested by psychologist Carl Rogers.

Rogers reasoned that people tend to make judgments about and discard the validity of their opponent’s arguments before they understand it. While a traditional argument focuses on winning, a Rogerian one works on seeking a solution which is mutually satisfactory. Rogers’ approach was simple – before deeming a viewpoint that may be different from yours as invalid, try to understand what it’s like to believe that. Maybe that pineapple pizza loving freak just really digs the whole sweet-and-savoury fusion.

By thoroughly understanding your opponent’s position, you can manipulate your argument into (seemingly) serving their best interests, thus increasing the likelihood of their approbation. By first showing your audience that you not only understand their differing position but also deem their views as valid, you create a classic ‘monkey see, monkey do’ scenario – your audience is more likely to listen to you if you convince them that you have listened to them.

Anya Trivedi B.Tech. IV | Comps So, the next time you spark the whole ‘what comes first – the

milk or the cereal’ debate, you might want to take Rogers’ approach and realise that it really doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t forget the bowl.

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HALOCENE

THE EVIL WE LOVE

Foram Fanasia | M.Sc. II | Physics

Every story needs an element of right and wrong. It does not matter if it’s just a person, an epidemic, or an emotion. Without these elements, a story might as well be in the dump yard of story-telling. Perspective plays another major role in narrating a story. Every character provides a very different outlook on the same story. Since every character has a different point of view, what happens when the bad guy tells us the story? The conceptualization of serial killers and fictional villains, in general, has seen a rise in popularity over the past decade. What makes their story so interesting to so many people?

She is here She has always been here...

Every time she’s here, it gets worse So much pain, so much solitude But above all, it’s the poison, the agonizingly slow death From nihilism.

Someone must get her out For the instant she tries to fly, she’s hauled back down to the chasm A chasm brimming with the bane Of patriarchy and gloom, Hopelessness, distress, and heartache Is there any way out?

Maybe yes, maybe no...

All she can do is cry out her sorrow, And swim in her tears The tears that exist but remain invisible for those who see her That way no one can pull her out In the name of salvage Yet it all sounds so hypothetical She’ll find a way to escape this Rapunzel castle After all, Rapunzel absconded And Rapunzel got to return home That was a fairytale; But in this dystopia, there ain’t no fairytale It’s all in the head.

She smiles Masking all the agony And the hurricanes in her head, She clings on to life for her own sake Despite everything, she endures this life She lives on, transforming her suffering Into the Amber of the crown on her head...

Sanskar Panda | B.Tech. III I Comps

The major substance that sells these stories is the sympathy these characters seem to generate with the audience. A character involved in mass murder will never be likeable. Maybe add a gruesome childhood, with a slight sprinkle of abandonment and neglect, and we have a completely different story. If a character cannot sell these points, there is no use in trying to captivate the audience. Something truly evil and vile should never be an inspiration to any of us.

But the sad truth is that over the course of existence, humans have immortalised evil to such an extent that instead of it being a lesson to all of us, it’s just another propaganda. Who does not love a good villain? They get to break all the rules that keep every other human in check.

They represent the freedom we are never offered. Gradually, people tend to empathize and understand a character, creating this massive spiral into romanticizing a character who does not deserve any part of it. People liked Satan so much he got his own religion.

Maybe we don’t look for warnings in these stories. We look for something that connects us to that character. That makes it look like what we do seems to be very insignificant to what a human is actually capable of. Maybe that is all we search for in these stories – proof that we are better than them. Because in the end, they are just as human as we are.

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MARS, WE’RE COMING Sumant S. Dangi B.Tech. II | Chem.

Pick a Sci-Fi movie. Done? Chances are, the movie you picked is something about space, maybe even aliens. The world of fiction has been inspired by mankind’s obsession with the stars. Humans have been stargazing for centuries, looking up at the sky, wondering what truly lies beyond our home planet. And when you don’t know the truth, what do you do? You imagine.

So far, humans have only imagined what travelling into space, landing on other planets, and exploring extra-terrestrial lands would be like. But now, concrete plans to travel to our dear, red celestial neighbor are not only in place but also being implemented.

Out of all the planets in our solar system, Mars is the most habitable for our species.

We Homo sapiens have evolved into intelligent yet destructive beings and exploited our planet’s resources. The fact that companies and organizations like NASA and SpaceX have several Mars Missions lined up over the next decade should be enough to excite you. But if that sounds too distant, hear this.

In July next year, due to the relative positions of Earth and Mars, it will take less time to travel to the Red Planet. The perfect time for a launch! NASA has a flight scheduled on July 17, 2020. Take-off site – Cape Canaveral, Florida. Landing site – Jezero Crater, Mars. Sounds odd? Well, this flight is no ordinary one. It will carry NASA’s new rover, and will explore Martian astrobiology and gather

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vital information that will allow humans to understand the planet’s environmental conditions and plan future missions. The cherry on the cake is that you can register yourself for this mission and “fly” to Mars with the spacecraft. NASA recently announced that the public can submit their names to them and get a souvenir “boarding pass” for the upcoming flight. Your name will be engraved on a chip that will be fixed on the Mars rover.

It is said that names are powerful. Well, send yours to Mars!

You may have heard of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, otherwise known as the real-life Tony Stark. Musk aims to make humans a multiplanetary species, so that if something happens to the Earth, the human race doesn’t go extinct. SpaceX plans to send their first cargo mission to Mars in 2022 and then a mission in 2024 with both cargo and crew. Musk’s vision is to establish a primary Martian base, “from which we can build a thriving city and eventually a self-sustaining civilization on Mars”. Of course, a fun field trip to Mars is decades away, but once a human base is established on the planet, it might not be long before you can brag to your friends, “Yeah bro, I just came back from Mars, it was lit.”

Although these goals may seem far-fetched right now, rest assured, the human race does not give up. Our generation will watch in awe, glued to the screen as the first human sets foot on Mars. Just wait and watch.

Mars, we’re coming.

RABBIT HOLES Aditya Saggar | B.Tech. III | ECE

It’s already 2 am. Class starts at 8 am, but you don’t feel like sleeping just yet. You roll over in the darkness and open up YouTube. You jump around from video to video, but can’t find anything you want to watch. As you continue your video-hopping spree, you realize that you have strayed into YouTube’s more interesting corners.

Hysterical YouTubers scream at you to see the “truth”. The suggestions push you further to explore the Internet’s vastness. You just cannot stop watching. It’s now nearly morning. How many videos have you watched already? How did you get here? You curse yourself for not falling asleep earlier. But, what really eats away at you is the fact that there’s so much more to know about whatever you were looking at. Welcome to the rabbit hole. Things just got weirder.

Rabbit holes are worlds folded into themselves. The more you start learning, the more you need to know. Like a predator waiting to spring on its prey, rabbit holes lie hidden in plain sight, waiting for a stray click.

Maybe it’s an article about superconductor physics, or perhaps an old unsolved murder.

Whatever it is, the arcane calls to you. You need to know more. You just can’t stop reading. You devour information, seeking something, but unable to formulate exactly what.

The rabbit hole has a grasp on you now.

Rabbit holes are hidden all over the Internet, waiting for somebody to discover them.

ENROUTE LAITLUM Mrityunjay Mohan Borah B.Tech. IV | Mechanical

The very structure of the Internet makes it especially conducive for these information sinkholes to form. Everything and everyone has a story. All human information melds together to create grand narratives – each as unique as a snowflake. Infinite chains of hyperlinks keep driving you deeper and deeper.

A stream of never-ending data whizzes by you as wonder if you will ever get to the bottom of whatever you are reading about.

Lewis Carrol immortalized this sense of overwhelming despair and confusion in Alice in Wonderland. When Alice tumbled through the rabbit hole, her world changed forever.

A quick peek out of curiosity turned into a journey through a never-ending void – an unexplored world, hidden just beneath the surface of all we used to know. Carrol’s rabbit hole has now transcended the pages of its book and proliferated throughout the digital realm. It is now up to the dwellers of this Internet world to stumble upon these digital rabbit holes and decide whether they will allow themselves to get sucked in. After all, who knows where your next click might lead?

Let me describe the scene. One Toyota Innova, seven guys, three high people, and four sober friends to control them. The journey was from Shillong to the Laitlum Canyons. Despite the bad weather conditions, we somehow convinced our driver to take us there. The two sects of friends were fighting over the Aux cable because the unexcited ones were more inclined towards low-fi music, while the latter wanted trap to be blaring across the music systems.

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The Google navigation technology failed despondently at those heights and the roads were brilliant. Well, they were, because if it takes 48 minutes to cover a 6 km distance, I guess the roads must be exceptionally smooth. And the journey? Unusually comfortable. Enthusiastic folks, find the average speed if you want!

After about an hour of a bumpy ride, we reached the destination. We were waiting in anticipation to step off the car to verify whether the place was as beautiful as it looked in Google Images. To be honest, we weren’t disappointed at all. Long stretches of beautiful, green meadows covered in dense fog. I immediately regretted not wearing a sweater or jacket as it was frigid out there. We reached towards the edge of the Laitlum canyon and instead of getting a beautiful and serene view, what we had in front of us were elongated stretches of mist and haze.

Our seven temporary philosophical minds were cut short when we heard a call from behind. When we looked around, we saw a man, probably in his sixties. He was togged up in a woollen cap and a worn-out jacket over his sweater. He was armed with a kettle in one hand and a basket consisting of biscuits and cakes in the other. The tea-seller smiled to us through his wrinkled face and with the action of our fingers, we ordered seven cups of red tea and a cake. We started sipping the hot, steaming, and soothing tea while he stood there waiting and observing each and every one of us. When we asked him about the expenses, he replied “Fo Fo”, or at least that’s what we heard.

We immediately realised that he didn’t speak English, or Hindi, for that fact. In a country with 1.324 billion people speaking over 880 different languages, this was not a surprising scene, according to statistics.

However, in reality, we seldom encountered such situations. So, the main task here was to pay the tea-seller in such a way that

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we don’t lose our money and he also gets his share. As a result, we took out notes of smaller denominations and kept on showing it to the old chap. The entire act of taking money in and out of the wallet and waiting for his approval or rejection was a complete element of fun. We were literally laughing like lunatics at 6,500 feet above sea level. After a lot of struggle combined with several trial and error experiments, we finally came to the reasonable amount that he wanted.

We clicked a picture with him as a memoir of the small incident. After he left, we again returned to our task of enjoying the nature’s bounty. I am not a psychic so I couldn’t read what was going on in my friends’ minds.

However, for me, I was no longer observing the nature. I was surprised; surprised by the small event that just took place a minute back. Surprised by how an old man, with no conventional and common language, with just a teapot and a paper cup was able to divert each and every one of us from our respective problems, worries, and produce an unadulterated laughing atmosphere. Well, maybe, I thought, these are the small moments that show what happiness feels like.

Maybe, this is what wise people mean when they say “Happiness is about the journey and not about the destination.” Happiness is a strange thing, much like love or pain.

It is possible that you might be searching for happiness in success and riches and a six-figure salary while happiness is waiting for you with a kettle and a paper cup filled with red tea, worth Rs. fo-fo.

Elon Musk is unraveling.

Take for example, the recent episode with the boys trapped in a cave in Thailand. Musk, seemingly struck by a case of FOMO, decided to jump onto the scene by brandishing a ‘human submarine’ that he had built. A professional diver involved in the actual rescue operation rightly snubbed Musk’s invention, which prompted our real-life Tony Stark to call the rescuer a ‘pedophile’.

Even before this, Musk’s mask of “Cool Charismatic Saviour of the Human Race” had been slipping. When factory workers demanded unionization, he tweeted about installing an ‘electric pod car roller coaster’ in the factory so that workers could have a ‘crazy good’ time.

After a spate of negative reviews by various tech media outlets regarding Tesla’s safety concerns (injured factory workers and exploding cars), Musk went on a rambling rant on Twitter, likening investigative journalism to an ‘extremist organisation’. Apart from his frequent twitter meltdowns à la Trump, there are the more curious antics of deciding to sell flamethrowers and shooting a car into space (PR stunt? Mere spectacle? Art?). However, given Tesla’s staggering debt pile of $11 billion, his wildly erratic behaviour has got sensible investors increasingly concerned. There is also the sinister fact, recently discovered, about how Musk has been donating generously to the Republican Party since 2003, the party of climate change deniers that gave us Trump.

However, despite his sizeable proportion of detractors, any criticism levelled at Musk is virtually drowned out by his legion of fans, who latch onto every negative tweet, every news article, to suss out all the naysayers and declaim all the greatness inherent in Musk and his inventions. To his fans, Musk is “Innovation Incarnated”. Too perfect to ever warrant even the slightest bit of criticism, this genius, Rick-and-Morty-loving CEO is the Messiah who will lead us to a future of slick cars zooming through space and factories with roller coasters to carry injured workers around (loss of limbs musn’t prevent you from slogging hard). Even the fact that Musk goes out of his way to respond to almost every negative tweet, shows his apparent conviction that he is actually beyond reproach.

Now Musk’s brash, tone-deaf brand of narcissism actually stems from a wider sentiment prevalent in our culture today. We now fetishise genius (not all genius, mostly of the STEM variety) to the point where it is acceptable to be a complete POS as long as you have a high IQ. Your personality might put Hitler to shame, but it’s cool because you just invented a gun that shoots hologram puppies into space while playing our favourite Beyoncé songs.

Even shows like The Big Bang Theory are symptomatic of this problem. The show tells us that it’s okay; it’s in fact cool to be a narcissistic, cruel, anti-social snob as long you are a genius nerd. It’s adorable when Sheldon harasses an underpaid waitress about the exact variety of coffee that he wants. It’s hilarious when he belittles other people for not having advanced degrees. And it’s definitely, perfectly cool that his treatment of Amy verges on being psychological abuse.

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In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, when accusations of sexual harassment sprung up against a number of influential people in Hollywood, there were various thinkpieces on whether we should ‘separate the artist from his work’. Yes, Woody Allen may have assaulted his seven-year old adoptive daughter but man, is Annie Hall a friggin’ masterpiece.

The debate gained much traction when Kevin Spacey got fired from House of Cards.

Yes, it is faulty to compare Elon Musk’s self-absorbed fumblings with cases of sexual assault.

However, the rationale remains somewhat the same. A particular set of human virtues are favoured at the expense of others. The capacity to create great art or great technology supersedes the capacity for human decency and compassion. However, a movie pales in comparison to the lifetime of trauma and grief that a survivor of sexual abuse would have to contend with. Thus, his genius notwithstanding, people like Woody Allen must be held accountable for their actions. They are not beyond all reproach.Similarly, Musk (and his annoying fans) must realise that his evident expertise in tech does not automatically render all his actions immune to criticism. Yes, Musk might in fact revolutionise the automobile industry with his EV’s and help battle climate change. However, for that to happen, Musk must hang up the diapers and be a little more thick-skinned. Tesla is beset with actual problems: it is cash-stripped (burns through $500,000 per hour), consistently falling short on production deadlines, and has dubious safety standards for his models.

There is no doubt that Musk is a visionary. However, if he really wants to start a revolution, he must start taking criticism in his stride and work on the shortcomings instead of fighting tooth and nail to have the last word with his detractors.

MICROSCOPIC MRI Foram Fanasia | M.Sc. II | Physics

What would cross your mind if I ask you to imagine MRI scans? Big noisy machines, right? A particular invention made at the Center for QNS (Quantum Nanoscience) at Ewha Womans University is about to change this notion. Researchers there have invented the world’s smallest MRI scanner!

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The creation of this microscopic MRI scanner is a landmark revelation in the field of quantum research. It will now be possible to analyse the magnetic behaviour of an atom.

Usually, in medical MRI scans, the body is surrounded by a strong magnetic field. This field aligns the spins of billions of protons (which are treated as tiny magnets) in one direction, which are otherwise randomly pivoted. On the other hand, the new microscopic scanner is capable of resonating with only one atom, instead of the billions in the

traditional MRI scanners. The other modification here is that in place of proton spin, electron spin is examined. To bring down the scale to the atomic level, a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is used. Iron and titanium atoms, both magnetic, were used in this microscopic scanner. The STM has an atomically horned tip. Depositing magnetised iron on this tip and applying radiofrequency current to it allows the tip to start behaving as an MRI scanner. The results with titanium, on the same sample, were drastically different, which helped scientists in differentiating between two atoms.

By using this level of precision in research projects, scientists will be able to achieve greater analytical abilities at the nanoscale.

This may have opened up the doors to new materials and drugs. The future is here!

UNDER THE PRICE TAG: THE BITTER REALITY OF FAST FASHION Saptarishi Pandey | B.Tech. III | Mechanical

You’re standing in a store shopping for the latest in style. At aisle 14 hangs an array of cargo pants. Tech wear is so in right now. You look at the price tag, a small black piece of paper hanging from a plastic wire ring near the collar. Just 900 rupees? That looks like an absolute steal! But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The fashion industry today is a 3 trillion dollar business and fast fashion is at its forefront. This paradigm shift popularised by retailers like Zara and H&M focuses on replicating streetwear and fashion at a rapid rate, often with a weekly refresh in designs to match the ever-changing trends in fashion. Currently, the fast fashion retailers produce 52 micro-seasons a year, compared to the previous 4 seasons a year. At this speed, the quality is often compromised as the price drops. While the customer is fooled into believing that they are saving money on fresh fits, the clothes are of subpar quality and often last only a few wears. According to the McKinsey & Company, in 2014, the average consumer bought 60% more items than in 2000 and the lifespan of the clothing was half as long. Fast fashion is an excellent example of living fast and dying young.

The problem with fast fashion is more than pockets deep as the industry is home to one of the cruellest work environments. Workers of these streetwear behemoths are underpaid and work for long hours at factories in poor conditions. While the industry is committing a humanitarian faux pas, its impact on the environment as a whole is a much larger concern.

The greenhouse gas emissions of the fashion industry leave the airline industry biting the dust. 92 million tons of solid waste dumped is from fashion and it is the second largest consumer of water in the world.

Polyester, a material that can take up to 200 years to decompose, is most popularly used by retailers. Today, microfibers like polyester pollute our oceans, killing 100,000 marine animals annually.Ironically, pollution is a trend we cannot sleep on. Big conglomerates are finally taking responsibility for their actions and are responding to the demands of Mother Nature. Outdoor gear retailer Patagonia is using their campaigns to promote mindfulness while shopping, while also recycling bottles to make jackets. Adidas and Parley for the Oceans are working together with their ‘Threat to Thread’ campaign to convert ocean plastic into fibre used in Adidas sneakers. Nike and H&M have signed up to the Make Fashion Circular initiative, which promotes the recycling of raw materials, while sustainable technologies like waterless dyeing are being developed to keep the needs of the consumer and the planet in harmony. Several entrepreneurs are sowing the seeds of sustainable fashion with clothing and footwear made out of recycled plastic.

Recycling isn’t the only solution; as consumers, we also have responsibilities we need to address while shopping. Fast fashion makes you spend more money in the long run. Most pieces you buy are underutilised and thrown away as trends pass. With lifestyles like minimalism on the rise, it is easier than ever to shop mindfully and buy just what you need.

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One can go fully Macklemore by thrift shopping, saving money while also buying clothes of better quality. It is also better to invest in classic high-quality pieces that can stand the test of time, without ever going out of style. As consumers, the money we spend

speaks to the retailers we buy from. So the next time you find yourself at your favourite mall in that fashionable store, ask yourself: Is buying that one item really worth the implications it has on the planet?

THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS Haider Sultan | B.Tech. III | ECE Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! These are the words every gambler and PUBG player craves to hear. Everyone wants to make more money – gamblers, dealers, exotic dancers, and obviously, casinos. To most of us, a casino is like a bank packed with money, and gambling is a way to get codes to access the money. But at the end of the day, a casino is a business, not a charitable organization throwing away free money. Like any other business, it has a business model in place designed to ensure its profitability. Casinos globally had a gross gaming yield of around 115 billion USD in 2016, with forecasted figures only ensuring higher revenue for the upcoming years!

The most relevant and significant justification for casinos’ astonishing earnings is the ‘house edge’. In simple terms, it is the casino’s average profit from a player’s bet. So, every game you play in a casino has ensured profitability, depending on the amount of time you decide to stay on the same table. The house edge for distinct games offered in a casino is different.

For instance, on the roulette table, the casino has a house edge of around 5%. This applies to the overall amount and not just the initial; hence, if you bet for $100,000 in total, you will be sure to lose around $5,000! The house edge on Keno is 25% and on slot machines is 17%, making them terrible choices to play. The best chances of winning are playing blackjack, or craps, which has a house edge of 0.8%. With proper methodology and techniques such as counting cards, the table can be kept hot for a long time. However, casinos have one of the most sophisticated technology systems in place to prevent card counters or people cheating with duplicate cards.

Casinos have many other techniques to keep a gambler in the building, such as giving them an illusion of “near misses” on the slot machine. Gamblers play faster when they are losing and seeing the near misses gives them a dopamine rush, which keeps them glued to the machine, furiously trying to hit the jackpot. The casino also offers free drinks in the hope that the customer takes them and continues betting. Less significant, yet noticeable tactics are the design of a casino, to keep the exits as far away as possible from the gambler by placing machines, flower pots, and other structures in the way. They also don’t install clocks on the walls so that the customer has little to no idea about how much time has passed.

Now, undoubtedly, the casino wants gamblers to come again. Therefore, they don’t take everything at once, and once in a while, give out huge jackpots so that customers’ trust in them rekindles. However, these are once in a thousand chances, so next time you win big, just get out as fast as you can.

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SPRAY IT, DON’T SAY IT Anya Trivedi B.Tech. IV | Comps

Arguably one of the best animated movies of the year, Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse had it all: a non-mainstream superhero, Post Malone, and most noticeably, a level of unprecedentedly detailed and varied animation art, often in a single frame.

Equally impressive was the abundance of graffiti that peppered the protagonist’s hometown. This restarted the conversation about this unusual art form that effectively straddles the fine line of being outside and inside the norm of what is considered mainstream in the modern art world.

What makes graffiti interesting is the fact that its presence falls well out of the boundaries containing the art pieces you would typically see in a museum. Not only does graffiti so evidently lack the standard glass casings you would see enclosing expensive art pieces, but graffiti’s sense of intrigue is also largely credited to the way it continues to advocate the unusual marriage of anonymity and celebrity. Graffiti artists themselves have preferred to remain largely anonymous, using tags or pseudonyms to trace their works as roadmaps over cities.

This is an anomaly in an industry where identity brings fortune. However, it is this anonymity that has transformed graffiti into something much stronger than crude teenage vandalism – a modern-day war cry.

Because the world has forfeited its willingness to listen to anything other than its own mirror, the facelessness that is often associated with graffiti has effectively helped us judge, or if we’re really lucky, truly understand an artist’s work, devoid of any prejudice or stigma that we may have against the artist himself. While the urge to create has always transcended the boundaries of class, race, gender, and ethnicity, graffiti allows us to see it exactly as it is – art stripped of any

preconceived notions, where our experiences alone shape our opinions about the piece, making them unique to each viewer. Into the Spider-Verse’s Miles Morales used his graffiti exactly as expected of an artistic teenager when given a mask (here, quite literally) behind which to hide his identity, and served as a perfect example of how anonymity doesn’t necessarily indicate loss of creative individuality.

The concept of space and ownership is central to the identity of street art, and the authenticity and availability of graffiti as a public art form acts as an invitation to both conversation and participation; a far cry from the mass-produced commercial imagery that often masquerades as ‘creative’ art. This characteristic is what made graffiti a flagbearer of identity, empowerment, and politics, because it in no way limits what can be said, who is saying it, and where it is being said. Artists do not shy away from using canvases ranging from reclaimed subway cars to government building walls, or even painting an elephant in the Philadelphia Zoo. The one-sided graffiti prevalent on the Berlin Wall serves as a symbol of repression versus liberty of expression in a way no political pamphlet could have ever done.

Modern history has seen graffiti turn into a medium for many things – art, political comedy, rebellion, propaganda or even downright blasphemy. While many would argue against the validity of graffiti as a form of art, describing it akin to vandalism and dismissing it just as such, it is as much a part of the art world as the slashed canvases that grace a modern art exhibit. It is thought-provoking, clever and forces you to stop and stare, and if you are not triggered, is it even art?

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JOAN DIDION IS NOT AMUSED Rhishabh Goswami B.Tech. IV | Chemical When we think of America in the late ’60s, we think of the Summer of Love. We imagine the thousands of hippies converging in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. We think of flowered sundresses, psychedelics, and the Rolling Stones.

Not so for Joan Didion. In Slouching Towards Bethlehem, her formative essay on the counterculture movement of the ’60s, not once does the word “love” occur – except in ironic quotes from dumb kids who know nothing. Her essay is like a darker, more-twisted foil to all the mainstream depictions of this era. While everything from song lyrics to movies idealise this period as some sun-drenched utopia of ‘free love’ and ‘spiritual upheaval’, Didion’s grim account shows it for what it really was: a vapid cultural movement composed of misguided, bored young people which caused drug abuse and criminal activities to run rampant in San Francisco (the essay ends with an account of a five-year-old being given LSD by her parents).

The rest of her essays go on to address similar themes – a society without cohesion, a society that’s fragmented. She explores widely disparate topics, ranging from serial killer Charles Manson to the emerging Women’s Movement. What connects the pieces are Didion’s tone of utter doom and her brilliantly precise style of writing. Suffering from “attacks of vertigo and nausea,’’ she records the disintegration of society through the lens of her own mental disintegration. Her account of the country presents a gloomy landscape populated by dumb movie stars, clueless politicians, and serial murderers.

One is struck by Didion’s refusal to commit to any conventional narrative. She was among the first journalists who challenged the racist mainstream account of the infamous Central Park jogger case (unlike Donald Trump, who continues to blame the wrongly-convicted African-American men to this day). It is this particular reason that makes Didion urgently relevant in our current age. Our chaotic, violently-polarised, fake-news-addled media scene is sorely in need of the cool, critical gaze of someone like Didion.

She may also seem ‘culturally relevant’ now for another reason. A very fun part of her essays is trying to piece together her super-glamorous lifestyle based on the elusive personal details that she provides. Her mansion in West Hollywood was a rock-’n’-roll party haven, visited by the likes of Janis Joplin and Warren Beatty. She was friends with Roman Polanski and would visit Jim Morrison while he was in the studio, recording for The Doors.

So if not as social commentary, then readers may perhaps approach her work as a gloomy lifestyle blog. Especially now that sadness has emerged as an aesthetic genre in itself (hello Lana Del Rey), she might be very endearing to millennials inclined a certain way.

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THE STORY OF THE CURTA MECHANICAL CALCULATOR Saptarishi Pandey | B.Tech. III | Mechanical

Made out of alloys, the Curta is a small black cylinder with a crank, which fits in the palm of one’s hand. It is constructed from around 600 parts; a pure mechanical marvel capable of performing not only basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division but also complicated ones like square and cube roots, and standard deviations, all up to 8-11 digits. The design of this calculator would awe watchmakers.

At a time when transistors did not exist and everything was mechanical, creating a handheld calculator seemed like a difficult feat. Each operation had a separate mechanism with metal parts and mechanical registers. This made mechanical calculators inconvenient and heavy.

Therefore, Curta had to be reverse engineered from the outside. While addition and multiplication were easy procedures, subtraction and division weren’t. So Curt Herzstark, the inventor, used a stepped cylinder design inspired by Leibniz and the method of complements for subtraction. By 1937, he had the preliminary designs of the calculator ready in Austria.

These designs, though not fully fleshed out, explained the basic mechanism of the device.

The story of Curta took an unexpected turn for the worse when Hitler marched into Austria during the Anschluss in March 1938. Herzstark was half-Jewish, could no longer inherit the family business of calculators, and got demoted to the role of a manager. By the Second World War, the company was no longer building mechanical calculators; instead, they were building instruments for the Axis Powers. In 1943, Herzstark was arrested for fabricated crimes and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Here, he worked as a technician in a situation of constant gambling between life and death. Just when all hope seemed to wither, the SS allowed him to work on the calculator designs. They provided hopes that he could show these designs to the Fuhrer when they won the war, and then live free. Seizing this opportunity, Herzstark got to work and started designing detailed pencil drawings of the calculator, all while living in the camp. By 1945, he had the designs of the first model ready, right before the liberation of the camp.The drawings he had made in the camp were dimensioned with tolerances and manufacturers found them easy to understand. In 1946, he had 3 models of the calculator he designed. In 1949, the Curta started being mass-produced in Liechtenstein and sold for $125. When it was released, it took the market by storm. No one had seen anything like it before. Engineers, pilots, architects, contestants of sports car rallies, and accountants favoured it for its portability and accuracy. The engineering was so commendable that only 3% of models returned for repair!

Today, the Curta is a collector’s item and sells for a few thousand dollars. It serves as a reminder of a time when life wasn’t as easy. Although it isn’t as useful now, with better palmsized calculators in our pockets, it is still preserved as a work of art.

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NEXT- GEN 5G TECHNOLOGY Haider Sultan | B.Tech. III | ECE We are at the dawn of a new age. 5th generation or “5G” radio technology is here!

Having already created quite the buzz globally, 5G is in its early stages of deployment in a few places around the world. Despite all the talks around 5G, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that people actually know little to nothing about this new technology, except that it’s ‘faster’. However, there are a plethora of lesser-known facts that will excite all tech enthusiasts.

According to the industry association 3GPP (3rd generation partnership project), 5G stands for Fifth Generation Cellular Network and any system using the 5G NR (New Radio) software can be called 5G. Now, while learning about the methods and data digitization technology used for transmission of data can be quite interesting, it can also be equally intricate and puzzling. So instead, we will draw a comparison between 4G LTE and 5G just to give an idea about the variations.

In 5G technology, the latency is reduced down to 1 ms from 10 ms, resulting in responses that are 10 times faster. The speed improves to 10 Gbps, which means that your favorite UHD 1080p movies will be downloaded in seconds! The allotted spectrum for the transmission of 5G is between 6-300 GHz – a massive improvement from 4G LTE, which used spectrums below 3GHz. The number of people that can connect to the network increased by a factor of 1000 allowing 1 million connections/km². The network energy use is reduced to 10% of the current 4G network and the battery life of low powered Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be increased by 10 years!

5G operates mainly on (but not limited to) 4 technologies: millimeter waves, small cells, Massive MIMO, and beamforming. Millimeter

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waves are the high-frequency waves that fall in the 30-300 GHz band of the electromagnetic spectrum, where we can create new channels for very high-speed transmission.

Millimeter wave signals have shorter wavelengths and cannot pierce through buildings or even trees, which makes them difficult to use. But there’s no need to worry. We can solve this dilemma using small cells, low powered base stations which can be placed close to each other to transmit signals around the obstacles.

Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) based stations can support 100 ports instead of the traditional 10-12 ports for antennas, which will drastically increase the current network capacity. However, hundreds of antennas shooting signals in all directions can cause undesired interference, hence, scientists developed beamforming.

Beamforming allows a base station to send a specific signal to a specific user instead of shooting it in all directions. This will not only prevent interference but can also handle much more incoming and outgoing data simultaneously.

Even though the technology is still in its initial stages, the applications are widespread. 5G can be used in health care as a way to do stroke rehab through virtual reality (VR), in smart bandages that track your healing or to perform urgent operations with the doctor being away in another country (via robotics and VR). 5G can be used to facilitate the development of self-driving cars due to its low latency and high transmission speed. It can be used efficiently for finance, logistics, and government purposes, such as tracking goods-filled carriers, enabling real-time mobile trading, and the safe sharing of financial information.

By integrating VR technology, 5G media and entertainment bring the world closer to real-time speed for streaming content.

Industrial applications such as automated seaports and industrial robots are also a possibility.

5G will also change the lives of individuals; however, the early rollout and construction

Mrityunjay Mohan Borah | B.Tech. IV | Mechanical

of a usable network are time-consuming.

5G compatible smartphones are expensive and pose fewer options to choose from.

Although it may take some time before civilians jump onto this bandwagon, the future is truly glorious. Until then, all we can do is sit tight and watch in excitement as our tomorrow unfolds.

There are authors who can express a story in two pages; others, who can take the same two pages to describe the features of a completely irrelevant object, like a chair in a crime thriller novel. Needless to say, they also have this profound desire to showcase their vocabulary using words that might take a minute to pronounce and an hour to comprehend. But far away from the maddening crowd, once there was an 18-year old kid who in a not-so-sober state, thought about writing a bestseller series and gifting humanity with one of the most hilarious literary masterpieces – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

At first sight, the writing style of Douglas Adams can be seen as pretty straightforward, irrational and probably not-so-artistic. However, when you realise that his literary works tempted you to keep turning the pages for hours even after a tiring day, you start appreciating the genius mind behind the paperback novel.

Adams builds up a paragraph with intense descriptions, guiding you through the details, taking you up the roller coaster for a bird’s eye view and then drops you without the seatbelt on; maybe even without the seat. And that drop is hilarious. While reading some lines from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, you’ll probably start laughing like a hyena, start questioning your sanity, or probably both.

Douglas Adams also provides a wide array of characters for the audience to choose from.

From the over enthusiastic Zaphod Beeblerox, to the paranoid android Marvin, with the confused and bamboozled earthling Arthur Dent in the middle, you can select whoever you want to associate with at different segments of the novel.

The subtle satire of the human race and the species’ arrogance about knowing everything makes this piece of literature even more interesting and fun to read. His writing is filled with dark humour, existentialist jokes, and philosophical questions, making it the perfect read even after a 10-hour work/class shift. So, even if Earth suddenly gets destroyed tomorrow to make way for a hyperspatial express bypass, DON’T PANIC.

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DEPARTMENTAL PHOTOS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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APPLIED CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT

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APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT

APPLIED PHYSICS DEPARTMENT

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MOHAMED SALAH, MARVEL AND MINORITIES Aashka Trivedi | B.Tech. IV| Comps On the 1st of June 2019, Liverpool F.C. won the UEFA Champions League. A few days later, the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab published a study crediting Liverpool F.C. forward Mohamed Salah’s popularity as the major cause of the decrease of Islamophobia in Liverpool. According to the report, anti-Muslim hate crimes have reduced by 18.9 percent in Merseyside County since Salah joined the football club in 2017. Moreover, the number of anti-Muslim tweets by Liverpool F.C. fans have nearly halved during this period, as compared to the fans of any other football club. The conclusions of this report call for a hugely impactful observation – how well can the normalization and positive exposure of stigmatized groups help curb the prejudices against them?

What Mo Salah does on the field is truly remarkable, but this finding probably influences the community far more than any of his active achievements in the sport. For the first time, a widespread representation of a Muslim is not that of a dark-clothed terror vendor, but a friendly, approachable, and insanely talented sportsman. This is the image of Muslims that movies and politicians do not show us. This is the image that humanizes the Muslim community at large. And not only does Salah’s fame increase minority representation and breed familiarity but it also decreases ignorance. As the researchers at Stanford put it, “viewers see what a Muslim prayer looks like, probably for the first time, when Salah scores.”

Mainstream representation is probably the most effective tool to convert racial, sexual, or religious differences into merely an afterthought if any thought at all. Representation normalizes these differences by showing them as they are: an identity and nothing more – not a hindrance, not a statement, but merely another color in the myriad of human existence. This is probably why so many women felt empowered after watching Captain Marvel kick royal butt on the big screen, or why so many black kids loved Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse. It showed the audience that a female/black superhero is equally capable as their male/white counterparts. And I stress that they are represented as equal – not more, not less. Neither Carol Danvers nor Miles Morales is more powerful because of their gender or race, they are just really awesome superheroes, who merely happen to look different from prevailing depictions.

This kind of positive representation mitigates discrimination against marginalized communities, largely by providing a realistic and untainted image of them, their culture and their identity. Moreover, the increasing portrayal and achievements of minority groups in sports, movies, art, music, and literature also gives a substantial part of the audience something to think about: it pushes majority groups to come to terms with the fact that people who look/ speak/pray/love like they do are not the only people worthy of being deemed “conventional”.

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LEGAL ADVISORY: PLAGIARIZED CONTENT Yukta Malik | B.Tech. III | Chemical Have you ever written an assignment all by yourself? Obviously, it is against the principles of our so-called college life, but what if there were actual laws? Laws against ‘stealing from the web’ or ‘copying from a classmate’. Scary, isn’t it?

In 2006, Kaavya Vishwanathan’s debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, had reached the 32nd place on the New York Times’ hardcover fiction bestseller’s list. In the weeks following the publication, the book was found to contain passages from four other writers and apparently How Opal Mehta got Caught was more widely read.

Vishwanathan, who had just finished high school when she got accused of plagiarism, is not the only one at fault. When schools began grading us on our capacity to mug up textbooks, and no one objected when we copied homework and assignments, we were conditioned to plagiarise. In such a system, where plagiarism has become the norm for millions of students, expecting complete rationalism and honesty becomes slightly far-fetched.

The undue pressure of publishing large quantities of research papers for career progression, with negligible concerns about the quality of content, is the main reason why so many scholars get accused of plagiarism. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been trying to clean up this mess and finally, in 2018, the Indian government adopted its first regulations on academic plagiarism by creating four tiers. The first tier still remains under debate as it permits similarities up to 10% without carrying any penalties. While this seems to be a much-needed step, some scientists disagree. Valangiman Subramanian Ramamurthy, a nuclear physicist, told Sciencemag.org that a sliding scale is unacceptable and that UGC should rethink its policies. Some others also argued that plagiarism is unavoidable in papers that do not require creativity.

It is undeniable that everything new is composed of something old, be it Bollywood remaking Hollywood movies, Indian startups like Flipkart (from Amazon), Zomato (from Yelp), or even the Indian Constitution. What matters most is that we maintain morality and give credit to the respective person. When you copy someone’s work, whether you intended it or not, it is still intellectual theft. In the meantime, while we students frantically copy assignments, we must consider that stepping out of the cocoon sometimes could be beneficial.

STONE APES Mir Bhatia | Btech IV | Comps

TL;DR: Apes ate magic mushrooms and boom, here we are, all developed and shit.

The human mind is truly something else. Capable of a vast array of emotions, lightning speed processing, and so much more, it has created and destroyed most of what we see around us and all too literally defines us. It can also come up with some wildly absurd theories, and ‘The Stoned Ape’ theory is just that - wild and absurd, but potentially, also food for thought.

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Supporting evidence kept aside, this theory has a lot going for it - the idea that our ancestral apes were high as hell, and that this baked-potato like state is what caused us to go from the less brainy Homo Erectus to the smarter, more logical, and bigger brained Homo Sapiens.

Evolution is a slow, natural process that you’ve probably heard of and may or may not believe in. The slowness of it is well documented, and this is where our theory in consideration begins to shine. The difference in abilities between Homo Sapiens and other hominid species is common knowledge, and this theory says that getting high on psylocibin, a powerful, naturally occurring psychedelic commonly found in certain species of fungi is what caused our cognition to jump so dramatically in a tiny timeframe, evolutionarily speaking.

But how, exactly, does this all pan out? According to McKenna, we “ate our way to higher consciousness”; the magic mushrooms consumed showing us that there’s more to life than just animaling around. He hypothesised that when our early ancestors were properly in the ‘zone’, the things they felt led them to come up with language, art, closer social bonds and more, thereby pushing us up over the rest of our animal brethren, becoming the intellectual powerhouses we are today.

This may all seem like bull, but there certainly may be evidence somewhere to back this claim: The size of our brains did increase very suddenly a couple hundred thousand years ago, growing nearly three times in volume between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago. When pressed to explain why, anthropologists almost never have a good answer, so maybe it isn’t the end of the world if we consider this for a bit?

I leave that up to you, the reader. Maybe this does make sense? Maybe it will the next time you’re high up in the clouds?

FROM TRASH TO TERROR Aashka Trivedi | B.Tech. IV | Comps

Imagine you are amongst the minority group of people who love to put pineapples on their pizza. Sure, you are shamed and socially ridiculed for it, and people may have cursed your ancient ancestors by now, but hey, you’ve got the right to choose. Now imagine a crazy pizza place which not only accepts your love for pineapples but also encourages you to indulge in them. Naturally, you would be drawn to this pineapple-friendly environment. The reason: acceptance.

At the core of most human experiences and ideals is the longing to be accepted. But ironically, we have created our own socially constructed notions of what should and should not fit into a “normal” community. This results in the members of a particular financial, occupational, racial, or religious group being promptly discarded as “trash” – unwanted by and unprofitable to the society.

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Once a human is ostracized from a group, he naturally tries to fulfil his social longing by seeking out more accepting groups. This mindset is widely being identified and manipulated by terrorist organizations. Terrorist groups, similar to the imaginary pizza place, provide these outcasts with a feeling of belonging and acceptance. This is one of the main causes of the rise of ‘homegrown terrorism’, especially amongst the youth.

When a person is isolated on the basis of their race, religion, or thought process, they become more susceptible to radicalization by foreign fundamentalists. Some may argue that social isolation is not enough cause for a person to kill a man, but the underlying psychology in this scenario is much more complicated than that. In most cases, a new recruit may not actually want to hurt anyone. They are offered an opportunity of unique acknowledgement, which they unequivocally accept. Group dynamics can then easily alter their perception, mindset, and most importantly, choice of action.

Mental health rarely ever plays a role in these groups – while a lone terrorist could potentially suffer from a mental ailment, a group of terrorists is usually motivated by a different reason altogether. Added to that is a theory that psychologists like to call the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis. According to this, increased stress and frustration

would lead to an increased (or at least an increased chance of) violent outburst. This explains why people who are poor or belong to religious minorities seem to be radicalized so easily – because of the tremendous social stress placed upon them.

This also shows how easily terrorism can be molded by social image and the media. A primary example of this is the stigmatization of the Muslim community and the resulting increase in Islamophobia. Mainstream media, and sadly, even a few politicians, have begun to viciously attribute the choices of a few individuals to the mindset of an entire community. These kinds of stereotypes are not only untrue but can also prove to be detrimental. We have started looking at marginalized communities through the means of a key-hole, one-dimensionally, without ever trying to open the door and gaze at the bigger picture.

Terrorist organizations thereby rely voraciously on these stereotypes, specifically on how they portray members of a group sharing the same beliefs and hardships. This gives momentum to the idea that while one man’s trash can be seen by another as treasure, cases like these convey how important it is to analyze what we consider as the society’s “trash” in the first place.

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THE VEIL OF FEAR Sumant S. Dangi B.Tech. II | Chem As I walked through the gates I felt something quite new; Both awkward and strange, I was clueless what I was meant to do Maybe the tingling in my body, and the butterflies in my stomach, Were signaling the waves of change The place where I had arrived, The place for which I had strived Lay before me, unknown, But waiting to be explored The posters came and went But what lingered was the fear The doubt, the possibility of judgment Was forever here I’m not good enough, it’s too tough…

What will people think?

These thoughts overpowered my will And became too powerful to sink Hence, I stayed within the confines of my door Not wanting to leave my abode of comfort anymore Days turned into weeks Weeks into months But the desire to explore remained shrouded In the Veil of Fear Opportunities were always so near But both my vision, and my thoughts, clouded Finally, the day came When I decided to end My self-imposed exile.

I realized that my choice Could cause no more harm than good I parted with my old domain, prepared to face The once feared unknown And found myself at the registration desk, Waiting to register my name.

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LA FAMILIA Yukta Malik | B.Tech. III | Chem.

One weekend, while idly scrolling through old WhatsApp chats, you find the group which you muted some time ago because you were too busy to read it. Yet, you’re too attached to leave it. After all, it holds the memories of all those after-class meetings and achievements that are now part of your résumé. You’re left feeling all nostalgic and wandering in those blissful days. It all started in the freshman year with class announcements, orientations, and interviews.

In the end, you’ve become an integral part of a number of clubs or as they say, ‘student chapters’.

Being able to associate with so many people seems exciting at first, but eventually, we all make our own priorities and hang out with the most similar brains we find. Remember that one group you blended so well in? That group becomes one of the best things that happened in college. The meetings turn into chats about college customs, professors, places to eat, and whatnot. Events turn into achievements and you grow up and start taking responsibility, much earlier than you can realize. While the WhatsApp notifications for meetings, photo shoots, and dinners become momentary escapes from all the stress, you also get a crowd to vent everything out to. And of course, the t-shirts bearing your name become even dearer, and you love to wear them now more than ever.

You will move on, take a job, have the best colleagues, but a part of you will still long for that old company. Maybe you’ll come back someday and meet the people who’ve taken your place, and watching them make the same mistakes you made and keeping the group alive will make you feel like a proud parent. This is the family who taught you everything that you couldn’t learn at home.

This is the family you chose to be with.

STORIES ACROSS AGES Shivansh Shandilya B.Tech. II | Civil

Ages ago, when Buddha attained enlightenment and inspired several devotees, there was a guy called Myoga. Now, he wasn’t like the other disciples of Buddha. He was slow. He couldn’t learn even the simplest sutras and struggled with the regular day-to-day work. Since Buddha’s disciples had to undergo several rigorous exercises, primarily meditation and reading, Myoga suffered. He wasn’t particularly good at burning his grey cells, which meant that all the other disciples made fun of him, ridiculed him, and made him feel less than he was. Despite all this, he stuck around and ardently did his bit. Buddha saw him and summoned him.

He asked him to cease all other tasks and start polishing shoes. Anyone who entered the ashram got their shoes polished by Myoga. The man polished shoes tirelessly and passionately for decades. Myoga polished his way to enlightenment, going on to become one of Buddha’s most famous disciples.

Like any other classic story, there is a lesson in this one too. Several such stories from Buddhism have been archived in the famous Jataka Tales. Interestingly though, these stories aren’t as well known in some places as they are in others. With the passage of time, stories undergo major changes. They are usually embellished with details that the locals could relate to at the time these tales travelled across the face of the earth. This is true for several major epics and folklores, across not just India but the world. The Grimm Brothers wrote several stories, fairy tales, which in their original form may not be suitable for young kids. However, these stories have undergone several major changes with time, especially when translated from German to English. Similarly, Ramayana as we know it is mostly Tulsidas’ interpretation of Valmiki’s original work and we can see another interpretation from the Tamil poet Kambar.

Another interesting example is the way the story of Ahalya is narrated. When I saw Ramayan as a kid, I felt that those folks were really unfair to Ahalya when she was cursed to live as a statue for quite some time because Tulsidas made Ahalya out to be innocent. But after reading Valmiki’s version, the reason why she was cursed finally fell in place for me. The story from the original work goes that Indra was smitten with Ahalya’s beauty and descended on the earth, disguised as Gautam Rishi and pulled the wool over Ahalya’s eyes. But unlike the Tulsidas version, she’s not shown to be as ignorant about the truth. It was actually her pride about the fact that the King of the Gods himself was infatuated with her that made her commit the folly, for which she was cursed by her husband. This is just one amongst several examples of stories interpreted differently across the ages. Of course, sometimes it’s done not just to make these stories relatable or to dilute some of the elements, but also as propaganda.

THE END OF THE WORLD Sanskar Panda | B.Tech. III | Comps

4:00 AM No time is ever too early for Ram Babu. You know someone’s living a healthy life when they actually want to wake up at four in the morning. A healthy life rarely equates to an interesting one and neither is Ram Babu’s.

Brush, Bath, Uniform, Job, Repeat. That has been Ram Babu’s life for the last twenty years.

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As he gets ready and reaches the gates of SVNIT he knows how his day is going to play out.

He’ll watch people come and go till all the faces he sees turn into a blur, and then he’ll go back and sleep. Why would today be any different?

5:00 AM Every morning, Ram Babu encounters a herd of aunties, going for a walk. That’s his first bit of interaction every day. A few friendly smiles or some small talk here and there.

Today, the atmosphere is different. There is no small talk or friendly smiles. There’s a grim aura set over the whole crowd. Ram Babu notices the difference because no one wears an all black traditional costume for a morning walk.

7:00 AM Something’s not right. You know something’s not right when you see it unfolding right in front of you. Every day at seven in the morning, along with his peers, Ram Babu goes through the motions of his daily quota of drills, with the head instructor barking instructions that he’s too old to care for.

But today, all Ram Babu sees is strangers around him. Everybody’s a stranger, all dressed in black.

7:30 AM Ram Babu only recognizes about twenty people every day. The gossipers, the professors, and a few students. They come in with their vehicles, being all friendly, trying to avoid any trouble. That does not bother him. Safety first, right?

What does bother him is that none of the students he usually sees turn up. Not a single one.

“It has to be a coincidence,” Ram Babu thinks to himself. Right? What else could it be?

8:30 AM A fancy car drives by the gates of SVNIT. Ram Babu has seen enough cars to know the type that owns them. Senior professors, directors, deans, the list goes on. He has been here long enough to recognize who owns which car, but this one? He’s never seen this one before.

Maybe he’s just having an off day.

Ram Babu never has an off day.

10 AM It takes about four and a half hours for an average human being to complete a marathon.

Ram Babu does not know this. However, he does know that the group of aunties would never participate in a marathon, and even if they did, they would never be able to walk the whole distance.

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Usually, when the group returns, it’s all light-hearted chatter and sentimental drama that fills the air. But today isn’t like other days. Instead of a light and happy mood filling the place, it stinks of sadness, grief and maybe just sudden respect for life and death.

11:30 AM Paranoia seeps into his bones, the feeling of an old friend, too familiar but too uncertain.

He is now convinced that he’s seeing things. He did not just see an extraordinary number of people walk out the front gate, the sense of emotion rippling through them like a ticking time bomb. He did not just see a guy he’s seen on TV in that fancy vehicle that just passed by. He also tries not to notice the flock of birds that eerily sounded like crows cawing pass over the premises, signaling the beginning of a disaster.

Till yesterday, Ram Babu felt like he knew the place upside down. Today, he feels like he doesn’t even know who he is. All he wants to do is to wake up from whatever this is and go back to normal work.

12:30 PM When he’s away from that wretched place and in the confines of his house, he contemplates what actually happened. Before that, he needs to clear his head, maybe with a glass of cool water.While changing into more comfortable attire, he notices the uniform he’s wearing. He did not wear black this morning. He would have noticed, wouldn’t he?

He doesn’t even know now. All he keeps hearing is his wife barking at him to get ready, or something of that sort. At least that part of his daily routine hasn’t changed. His submission to feminism. Happy wife, happy life and all that.

For what seems like the thousandth time, his wife asks him to get ready.

“WHAT?!”, he yells.

“It’s the ceremony. We have to go now or we’ll miss it.”

“What ceremony?”

“The one you told me about the day before yesterday. You said all your friends wanted to go there so they had to miss duty. But you, being the righteous prick that you are, decided to work when you could have taken the day off. That’s why I had to iron that old uniform of yours to wear today. REMEMBER?” He vaguely remembers telling her about this thing. But he cannot point out what it actually is.

“For the last time, what is it about?”

“I don’t know. You were the one blabbering around about martyrs and sacrifice and all. You said there was some memorial to pay our final respects.”

Ram Babu couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as everything started falling into place.

It wasn’t the end of the world like he thought it was. It was just a simple ceremony down the road.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,’’ he says as he puts on his only formal black shirt.

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CONTRIBUTORS CHIEF EDITORS

CHIEF DESIGNER

Mrityunjay Mohan Borah Rhishabh Goswami

Yukta Malik

SECRETARIES

DESIGNERS

Aashka Trivedi Anya Trivedi

Sahil Pathan

EDITOR AT LARGE

JUNIOR EDITORS

Mir Bhatia

Aditya Saggar Foram Fanasia Kapil Dedhia Shivansh Shandilya Sumant Dangi

SENIOR EDITORS Haider Sultan Sanskar Panda Saptarishi Pandey Tanisha Tambi

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